Dethroned
by AmityRavenclawElf
Summary: Azula is in prison, and Mai and Ty Lee are now living their lives...or they would be. Except that they can't just abandon their insane friend. Obviously, takes place shortly after the series finale and looooooong before LoK.
1. Chapter 1

"H-Hi." Ty Lee's clear voice rang through the stone room eerily. She hated _eerie_. "How are we doing?"

Azula pointedly glanced at her bondage and the door to her cell. (The Avatar had already taken her bending, but they still had to chain her up because she consistantly attempted to throttle anyone who entered.)

"Right," Ty Lee hastily agreed. "Prison. That's kinda gloomy. Hey!" She plopped down next to her old friend. "What happened to your hair? Did it burn off?"

"I cut it," Azula droned. That was out of character. She had never been the droney type.

Ty Lee, eager for something to do, began to weave Azula's hair into a braid. "You always had such nice hair..."

Azula laughed, quietly at first, then very suddenly erupting into cackles that filled the room and startled Ty Lee into dropping what she was doing- literally -and bringing a hand to her heart.

"Don't scare me like that," she chided, resuming her task immediately. Her hands didn't even tremble.

"Don't pretend you don't fear me," the ex-fire-princess said almost grandly. _This_ was the Azula Ty Lee knew, but there was still something off, something loose...

"I don't," Ty Lee answered flatly.

"You always feared me. That's why you stuck around, did whatever I said...That''s why you're here!"

"Azuula, calm down!" Ty Lee pleaded.

_"WHY ARE YOU HERE?"_ Azula demanded in a shriek, and Ty Lee hugged herself, forcing Azula's negative energy to not take effect.

"Azula, I'm your friend," Ty Lee said simply, moving to sit across from the other girl. "I care about you."

"No one cares about a dethroned fire princess," Azula answered matter-of-factly.

"Azula, it never mattered that you were a fire princess," Ty Lee said. "Sure it mattered to my parents, they told me to be nice to you, but that's what they said to all of my sisters. Why do you think I kept contact even after I joined the circus? Why do you think I'm here now?"

"Ty Lee, why am _I_ here?" Azula asked with a sudden bout of very real, very visible panic. "W-Where is my father? Where is my mother?"

Heartbreakingly, that was when the time ran out for Ty Lee's visit. As she was escorted away, back to the world of smiles and makeup, Ty Lee felt a tear escape her right eye, and she knew that, contrary to the plans that she'd made in coming here, this would not be where and how she broke off connection with the Fire Lord's sister.


	2. Chapter 2

_Three weeks later..._

"Wow," Mai said blandly. "You look terrible."

"It's just the lighting," Ty Lee assured a glowering Azula. "Other than that, you're still super pretty."

"Why did you drag me in here?" Mai sighed to Ty Lee.

"Both of you need this," Ty Lee said firmly.

"Need what? To smell like mold all day?" Mai did not leave the vicinity of the cell door. "I got enough of that when_ she_ threw _me_ in here."

"You betrayed me!" Azula shouted quite suddenly. Ty Lee, by now, was used to her sudden outbursts and didn't even flinch.

"You brought me to it!" Mai shot back.

"Guys, come on," Ty Lee pleaded. All of this anger was going to give her a rash, but she didn't care so much at the moment. "Don't you remember all the fun times? Like...Azula causing people pain, and Mai laughing at that pain, and-"

"And you completely spacing out and missing the whole thing," Mai sighed detatchedly.

"But you always told me about it later, and it always sounded hilarious." Ty Lee cartwheeled to her feet and looked Mai in the eye, deeply. "You remember. You do. You just don't like to admit it. But she _needs_ us."

"I don't need you!" Azula retorted. "Go ahead! Leave me to rot! I can see that you want to!"

Ty Lee, who had mastered the technique for getting Azula out of those angsty trenches that she sometimes fell into, crouched beside her and placed a hand on her tense shoulder. "Azula," she said, her face softly focused, "I know this is hard for you, but just...think about the turtle duck pond. All the turtle ducks..."

Azula briefly relaxed, but then her tension turned into rapid heaving as she struggled to retain the sobs that threatened to overcome her. Ty Lee wrapped her arms around her and kept speaking in a calm voice, "Okay, so you've reached a spike. What is that spike?"

Azula emitted a high-pitched sound, sort of a "gah", but didn't answer.

"If you can't say it, you won't beat it. You want to beat the spike, don't you?"

"Th-The mother turtle duck! She a-always stayed with the rest! She protected them!"

"Oh my gosh," Mai droned, not quite as mercilessly as before. "She really has cracked."

"She needs us," sighed Ty Lee, in whose arms Azula had now gone still. "She wants to put herself back together, but she doesn't know how."

"And I'm supposed to know? You've got a fine handle on it!" Mai wheeled around, and her hand was on the doorknob when Ty Lee ran to her and protested:

"You need her, too. She may be a little cracked, but she's still a part of you, and without proper closure, you'll go all angsty, too."

"Yikes" was all Mai said.

"Yeah. So, we've gotta fix her. We just have to."

"'Have to' me all you want, but I'm the Fire Lord's girlfriend, and I have a meeting." Mai opened the door and stepped out.

"See you tomorrow?" Ty Lee called after her, but the door shut before an answer could be received.


	3. Chapter 3

Zuko was eyeball deep in maps and ink when the knock came at his study door.

"I'm busy," he called.

"It's important," a familiar voice replied.

Zuko sighed and stood. "Come in."

Ty Lee entered, both of her hands running nervously along her braid. Her relationship with Zuko was a bit strained.

"What is it, Ty Lee?" the Fire Lord asked...very Fire-Lordishly.

"I was just wondering if you could come with me to visit Azu-...your sister. I think it'd be a good thing for her and for you."

Zuko wasn't sure how to react to the request, so he simply deadpanned, "What?"

Ty Lee rushed on, "I asked Mai, but she has a headache. She said she isn't in the mood to babysit a psychopath with mommy issues."

Zuko ran a hand through his growing hair. "So you thought of me."

"Actually, I started off with your uncle in mind, but he's off at Ember Island with a fortune teller."

Zuko cringed. "Don't remind me."

Ty Lee let out a tentative giggle, and Zuko remembered, then, why he sometimes liked her. Sometimes.

"I can't just drop everything and visit her," he protested.

"Sure you can. It's easy. Get that cute water tribe boy in here."

"Sokka?"

"Yeah. He's smart. He can handle whatever this is."

"Sokka's busy with airship inventory."

"Well then, get his sister. She's sorta smart-ish, and I don't think _she's_ doing anything of note right now."

"She's with the Avatar. They're _relaxing._ You know, after the _war?_"

Ty Lee made her eyes big and pleading. "Zuzu, it'll be ten minutes max. She needs you. You know you can't just dump her."

"Ty Lee, if I have to have you escorted out, I will. I told you, I'm too busy."

...

"How'd you get him in here?" Azula asked. For this present couple of minutes, she was back to her old self: snide and calculating.

"He wanted to come," Ty Lee lied casually.

"Don't lie," Azula snapped. "I can always tell when you do that. I'm not a child."

"No; just insane," Zuko murmured.

"And what does that make you, Zuzu?" Azula asked innocently.

"Insane," he answered grouchily.

"And a usurper," his sister supplied.

Zuko glared at her, but he didn't blow up about it the way he might have when he was younger. "The Avatar dethroned you," he said coolly. "I was just the soldier who detained you."

"Detained?" Azula's voice cracked, but she plowed on. "How callous. Does anyone know the whole story, Zuzu? Or is that just another war secret?"

"Zuko brought you some noodles," Ty Lee interjected as brightly as she could.

"Does sweet Mai know about the little water tribe girl?" Azula persisted, ignoring Ty Lee's diversions.

"Hey, why talk when we can eat?!" Ty Lee called out all the louder.

"What? You said I need closure," Zuko challenged Ty Lee. "Maybe we should have this out now."

"All the negativity," Ty Lee muttered.

"You deserved what you got," Zuko told Azula.

Ty Lee was waving her hands urgently for Zuko to shut up, but it was too late; Azula had reached her trench.

"And I'm supposed to play the sad little prisoner forever just because I did what I was told and you didn't?!" she screeched.

Zuko was startled by the outburst. Azula was _never_ vulnerable. "Mai was right," he murmured while Ty Lee whispered soothing words to cool Azula's aura or whatever she did. "She's cracked wide open." He couldn't believe it.


	4. Chapter 4

Ty Lee was on her way to Azula's prison for the fourth or fifth week when somebody entered her path.

"There you are," the girl said.

"Suki!" Ty Lee exclaimed, when at last she recognized the fully-made-up warrior girl. She was getting better and batter at that... "Oh! I mean..." She gave a salute. "Madame Head Kyoshi Warrior."

Suki stared at her for a second. "Right, well...That's kind of why I'm here. The Kyoshi Warriors...The girls...We're heading back to Kyoshi Island. Tomorrow morning."

Ty Lee's smile utterly vanished. "Kyoshi Island, like wayyy...Kyoshi Island? Isn't there still stuff to do here?"

Suki's face was solemn. "We can't ignore our home. The people on the island need us above all else."

"But...I just really-"

"We've agreed that the Kyoshi Warriors are leaving tomorrow. Are you a Kyoshi Warrior?"

Right to the point. Suki was always a little snappy with Ty Lee. Most of the war vets didn't trust her, since she'd been so cliquey with their enemy for so long. Suki hadn't spent the time with her that the other girls had, so she was no exception.

"Are you making me choose between being a good friend and being a good warrior?" Ty Lee asked quietly.

"If you were a true warrior of Kyoshi, it wouldn't be a choice."

Ty Lee squinted, confused. "What does that mean? You pick 'Kyoshi Warrior' over 'friend'?"

"If that friend was Azula."

Ty Lee felt herself turning very red. This was what everyone saw. Azula's mark on her. And everyone wanted her to denounce it. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said to Suki, then sprinted along down her original route.

...

Azula was asleep when Ty Lee arrived at her cell. She slept somewhat fitfully, but not as bad as usual.

That was because Zuko sat beside her with a soothing hand on her back.

"She's shattered," he said softly. "Being a fire bender...being royalty...it was integral to her identity. Now she's coming apart at the seams."

"She's being forced to ask herself questions," Ty Lee replied, sitting down beside Zuko. "I don't think she likes the answers much."

"I knew her for who she was," Zuko breathed, and in that quiet moment, Ty Lee saw a bit of his uncle's wisdom in him. "I don't know who she is now. I doubt she does, either."

"She's like a butterfly," Ty Lee said slowly, trying not to sound too silly. "Now she's in her cacoon. We'll just have to wait and see how she turns out."

Zuko shook his head (His hair was growing out again.) and stood. "She isn't a butterfly," he answered, making his way to the door. "She's a sword, being forged in fire. Pounded, put under severe pressure-"

"A sword is a weapon," Ty Lee protested. "A tool."

"I'm wondering if that's what she always was to my father," Zuko sighed, and Ty Lee felt Azula shiver.


	5. Chapter 5

Mai had grown to enjoy her detachment.

It was safer, not caring. It allowed for the world to just shift and morph around her while she watched through placid eyes. It had started as an armor, but now it was just the skin she wore from day to day. And she loved it.

Zuko was not detached, however. He felt things more than anyone Mai had ever met, and that was why she'd had the choice to either love him or detest him.

That choice was gone now. She loved him. She loved him, and there was no way out anymore.

Ty Lee and Azula? That was more complicated. She liked them for different reasons. She liked Ty Lee because she seemed so serene, so innocent, so _positive. _The way Mai sometimes wished she was. Azula, she liked because she was guarded, defensive, snide. The way Mai _was_.

It was hopelessly corny, but there it was: Zuko was the love of her life, while Azula and Ty Lee were pieces of herself.

Ugh.

It was past midnight, and Mai was almost asleep when the knock came at her door. She sat up and strode past her rain-soaked window to let in the rain-soaked servant.

"Ma'am," the servant said, ''there is grave news."

...

Azula started humming dismally to herself, which was a dreadful lowering of her dignity.

She had started seeing things that weren't there: shadowy figures that crept closer but she couldn't fight them off because she was defenseless, powerless, emptied of the lightning that had once run through her veins...and alone. She was alone.

She had never realized how terrifying _alone _was.

"Ty Lee?" she whispered listlessly. _All hail Firelord Azula._

Suddenly, a knock came at the door. Then, as the Whoever seemed to realize that he didn't need to knock, he came in.

And shut the door behind himself.

...

"I thought you'd be here."

Zuko jumped at the voice that spoke behind him. Mai had slunk into his study and was leaning against the door.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice coming out gravelly from disuse (He'd been silently pondering his documents for hours.).

Mai looked weary, and Zuko was both wary about the implications of this phenomenon and slightly glad that Mai was comfortable enough around him to _reveal_ her weariness. "Ty Lee," she replied simply.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, Zuko released a public statement:

"When the war ended, I was certain that the world was on its way to a greater peace. However, last night, there was an occurance that caused me to wonder: an assassin killed a friend of mind, a Kyoshi warrior named Ty Lee, purely because of her ties with the old Fire Nation regime. Another assassin attacked my sister, Azula, in her prison, despite the fact that she was in a defenseless and demented state. She was saved by a pair of prison guards who have been recently promoted for their valiance, but this act of hatred only proves that our nations, now more than ever, must work to cast off the hand of fear that grips the hearts of our people and twists them until they are capable of committing evil acts."

Mai stared at him when he was done. "It doesn't sound like you," she said.

"I'm feeling it again," Zuko replied. "The anger."

"The Avatar said that he plans to schedule a visit."

"Him and Katara, Sokka, and Toph."

"It'll be good to see them, won't it?"

Zuko didn't answer for a while. Then: "Yes. It will."

...

"Where is Ty Lee?" Azula asked for the third time.

"I told you," Zuko sighed, but not in exasperation.

"I want Ty Lee," Azula murmured petulantly.

"She's gone," Mai said flatly.

"No she's not," Azula argued. "I want her here. Send her. Call her from wherever she is. She'll come."

"She can't come," Zuko said. "She was killed."

"I need Ty Lee," Azula kept mumbling to herself.

"Think of the turtle-ducklings in the pond," Mai drawled.

Immediately, Azula let out a sharp screech of deep psychological torment.

"What is it?" Mai asked, sounding actually gentle, which was a rare thing.

"Th-there...are no turtle-ducks left," Azula breathed.


	7. Chapter 7

"Sokka?"

"Never gonna happen."

"Suki?"

"Forget it."

"Toph?"

"Are you kidding me? I'd rather go toe-to-toe with a pack of scorpion-bears."

Zuko sighed. "Katara?"

Katara shook her head mutely.

Without much hope, Zuko addressed the last of the group: "Aang?"

The Avatar sighed. "I'm sorry, Zuko, but approaching Azula is just too big a risk for me. I know she's your sister, but..."

"I get it," Zuko replied, and he did. He really did. "I guess I was just hoping..."

"It makes sense," Toph interjected in a detachedly rational tone. "You've lost everyone in your family. You're looking for a lifeline. Someone to anchor you to who you were, after all the 'transformations' you've had."

"Zuko, if you need closure, go back to the baldy ponytail," Sokka suggested. "Don't meet with crazies who happen to be related to you."

Zuko stared at Sokka blankly. "Thank you for your council," he deadpanned.

"Uh-oh," Suki sighed.

"He's gone all dead-in-the-head," Toph observed in the same tone. "Someone get Mai."

"Mai isn't here," Zuko answered abruptly. "She's at Ember Island, consoling Ty Lee's family."

An uncomfortable silence fell.

"I heard about Ty Lee," Aang said at last. "I couldn't believe it."

"I could," Sokka said.

"The war is supposed to be over," Aang continued.

"We defeated the fire nation. That doesn't mean we've defeated every bad person ever." Sokka shrugged.

Meanwhile, Aang let loose a sigh. "Am I the only one who feels like we haven't won anything?"

Suki looked down at her wrists, which still bore marks from handcuffs. "Yes," she answered simply.


End file.
